OFFSTAGE: Dolly Parton, Luke Bryan Inspire Kisses on The Bachelorette

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that’s happening with country music artists behind the scenes and
out of the spotlight.)

Oh, Bachelorette. What irony you have brought us this week. In a reality show about
finding love in the most unrealistic way, you bring on the one celebrity whose marriage seems to have the most real love of
all: Dolly Parton. Sunday night’s episode of The Bachelorette featured
a trip to Dollywood for bachelorette Emily Maynard and Arie Luyendyk Jr. (the racecar driver). They did all sorts of Dollywood
things, then ending up sitting on the stage where Parton usually plays. And then, voila! Parton herself came out and sang
a couple of true love songs to the would-be lovers while they danced and Maynard repeated this refrain: “I could die, I could
die, I could die.” After Parton asked Luyendyk to “make himself scarce,” the two blondes sit down for some girl talk. Parton
tells her, “I just know true love can last. I’ve been with my husband for 47 years. We’ve been happy. So what are you really
looking for in a guy?” Maynard responds, “I think it’s that feeling you get when you know you just know,” adding she hopes
to find “somebody I like just as much as I love.” Parton ended the date by saying she knows there’s such a thing as love everlasting
and hopes Maynard finds it. Later in the show, Maynard and Luyendyk made out on a Dollywood merry-go-round, so I think Parton
may be on to something. But earlier in the show, country music inspired a kiss between Maynard and another contestant, Chris
Bukowski. It was a private Luke Bryan concert in downtown Charlotte, N.C.
(Maynard’s hometown) that did it that time. Bryan sang “Drunk on You”
and “Do I” before Bukowski made his move on Maynard. I would really start
to love this show if all the remaining contestants were able to hook up with Maynard after some kind of country music inspiration.